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How one company’s rebrand reached 50% of the intended audience in 1 day

Host
Vera Nagtegaal - Head of Hippo.co.za
Brand
Hippo.co.za
Published
October 2020

What do you do when the impact of your marketing becomes less effective? When insurance comparison website Hippo.co.za discovered that they had lost touch with their customers, they embarked on a mission to revitalise their brand. It all began with the brand’s mascot, the hippo. A new quirky approach to its positioning — and therefore the positioning of the brand itself — led the team on a campaign that set out to reach a wider audience, make consumers understand they’re more than just car insurance, and convert more customers. The results were staggering: 50% of the intended audience was reached on the first day of the campaign alone.

0:04

My name is Vera Nagtegaal. I'm the head of Hippo.co.za

0:07

A platform that gives South Africans the ability to compare a range of quotes

0:12

It's not just car insurance — we also compare life insurance, health insurance, personal loans, and even travel

0:19

Hippo has been around for a long time

0:21

There was an opportunity for us to really look with fresh eyes at our brand

0:26

In the recent years, we've lost touch with our tonality

0:28

We wanted to be quirky, we wanted to talk more about what it is that we offer but in a friendly way

0:34

We brought back our hippo — we felt it was quite a loved character and that there was an opportunity to leverage him in a new way

0:41

So we worked with our agency to achieve three things

0:43

Reach a wider audience, show that we are more than just car insurance comparison quotes

0:48

And lastly, convert customers

0:51

We used TrueView for Action as our conversion channel and Mastheads to get people to engage and come to the site

0:59

We remarketed to see how we could get more people to the site

1:03

Within the first day, we reached 50% of the total intended target audience for the entire campaign

1:10

We saw a 36% lift in purchase intent

1:15

We saw that people who saw the ad on YouTube was twice as likely to look for Hippo.co.za on Google

1:21

We also saw that our cost-per-acquisition was about 50% less than in other channels

1:26

What surprised me about the campaign was the ability to not only reach these audiences but to also convert them

1:32

Getting them to the site and getting them to engage with these products and then actually go full-funnel into the purchasing cycle as well

1:40

Our thought process going into this was let's look at YouTube as an alternative to our traditional media channels

1:46

To get into a new audience

1:48

We know what our what our traditional media channels deliver

1:51

We weren't as familiar with what digital, and specifically YouTube, would deliver for us

1:57

I was quite clear in my direction to my team

1:59

We have to sometimes just be brave and try new things

2:03

And in this digital age, I think that's the most important thing for any brand — specifically a digital brand

2:09

Is to take the leap and to try new things

2:10

Hippo is a digital brand — it's a no-brainer really

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